CSBG Archive

Comics Should Be Good’s Top 100 Comic Book Storylines

Welcome to the Comics Should Be Good Top 100 Comic Book Storylines poll!

The first Storylines poll was back in 2009. We’re on an every four years schedule here.

It’s time to vote for your top ten all-time favorite comic book storylines!

Here’s the deal. You folks all vote in the comments section here up until 11:59 PM Pacific time, October 31st. I’ll tabulate all the votes and I’ll begin a countdown of the winners starting November 4th.

Sound good?

Okay, read on for the guidelines!
1. Vote in the comments section below, making sure to include that classic word “ACBC” somewhere in your comment so your vote will be marked invisible.

2. Vote for your ten favorite comic book storylines. Vote for TEN – less than ten storylines and I don’t count your ballot.

3. Rank your ten favorite comic book storylines from #1 (your most favorite) to #10 (your 10th most favorite). I’d prefer it if you actually numbered your entry, #1-10. It’s easier for me to count. On that note, please also avoid listing them like this “1) 2) 3) 4),” because 8 with a ) after it transforms into a smiley face in the comments section (this one 8) ). Just plain ol’ “1. 2. 3.” works best.

Here’s a template you can use as a guide. You can just copy and paste it into your comment:

TOP TEN COMIC BOOK STORYLINES

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

ACBC

4. Your top choice will be given 10 points, your second choice 9, etc.

5. Make sure to include ACBC in your ballot.

6. A comic book storyline is a main plotline that continues under one title, whether it be the title of the comic it appears in (like the Kree-Skrull War in Avengers or the Rock of Ages in JLA) or the title of a crossover (like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wrath of the First Lantern, Kraven’s Last Hunt, Seven Soldiers, etc.).

Note that occasionally a non-explicitly labeled storyline might begin in one book and continue in another, like, say, the first Ra’s Al Ghul storyline going in between Batman and Detective Comics or the Magus Saga beginning in Strange Tales and continuing to Warlock’s own (resurrected) book or the Sise-Neg storyline beginning in Marvel Premiere and continuing into Doctor Strange’s ongoing title. Those storylines are allowed, and I think I can trust that you folks can figure out when something like that happened.

7. A comic book storyline must be at least two issues long. One-off stories need not apply. Sadly, that eliminates graphic novels like the great Asterios Polyp and Fun Home and one-shots like The Killing Joke, but, well, them’s the breaks.

8. Unless clearly labeled as a storyline, there is a 12-issue limit for storylines (this is to dissuade votes like “Preacher #1-60″ as one storyline). Galactic Storm is clearly labeled a storyline, even though it lasts more than 12 issues, same with Church and State in Cerebus. For sake of ease, I recommend going by how the trade paperbacks split long runs up. But really, I am only picking 12 as an arbitrary number to keep people from trying to say, like, Warren Ellis’ run on Transmetropolitan was one storyline. It wasn’t. It was lots of smaller storylines. But 12 is not some hard and fastened rule. If you know of a storyline that you think applies and it is a little more than 12 issues long, I’ll almost certainly end up allowing it.

8. When listing your storyline, just try to make it clear what you’re talking about.

9. I’ll make various decisions in the interest of fairness.

10. If you have questions/clarification requests, feel free to ask them in the comments section below and I’ll provide the answers here. In fact, let me put out a few pieces of clarification out before anyone even asks about them…

A. As noted by the first Ra’s Al Ghul storyline counting as a storyline, stories can count as stories even if they are not continuous. To wit, I’ll allow the “Elektra Saga” in Daredevil as being #168, 174-182, 187-190.
B. Serialized stories still count as storylines. So Maus counts, Jimmy Corrigan counts, David Boring counts, Ghost World counts, From Hell counts, etc.
C. Self-contained mini-series count as storylines.
D. Ultimates II is one storyline, Ultimates I is two storylines.
D. 52 is not a storyline. There are individual storylines WITHIN 52 that you can vote for, but not 52 as a whole.
E. Long Halloween and Dark Victory are separate storylines.
F. Immortal Iron Fist can count as one storyline
G. Runaways Volume 1 can count as one storyline.
H. Green Lantern/Green Arrow’s “Hard Travelin’ Heroes” doesn’t count as a storyline. That’s a run, not a storyline. Like Mod Wonder Woman, it wasn’t intended as a storyline, it was intended to be a new direction. It just ended too soon.

Remember, please include the following word: ACBC – on your ballot. It will make it so your ballot appears invisible to other readers, so only I can read it (and count your vote secretly).

Most importantly, have fun!

Now vote!

Remember, please include the following word: ACBC – on your ballot. It will make it so your ballot appears invisible to other readers, so only I can read it (and count your vote secretly).

ArchieLeach

Brian Cronin

No. That’s a run, not a storyline. It was already celebrated as such on the Top 100 Comic Book Runs list. Feel free to vote for individual storylines WITHIN the run, though (like the “My ward is a junkie!” two-parter or the Maltus two-parter).

Craig B.

Here are the last to be eliminated and that almost made the list – it was incredibly hard to knock them off, as I love each one of these stories – Ultimates II, the (first) Longshot mini-series, the Golden Age and the entire series Promethea, which seems like one storyline to me.

Eladio Garro

Greg Silber

1. Does “The Complete Maus” count as one story? If I recall correctly “Maus 1″ and “Maus 2″ were separate, yet obviously related, miniseries.
2. Similarly, what about Persepolis? The original French edition was serialized in 4 parts.
3. Must the storylines have originally been serialized in magazine-style print “issues”? Or will webcomics or serialized newspaper strips be considered invalid?

seth

Craig B.

Ooh, good question about Manhunter, Seth – I forgot about that one but would have agonized mightily about including or excluding it from my list if I’d thought about it before submitting my list. I’m guessing Brian will say the original stories in Detective Comics are one storyline, but you never know . . .

Greg Silber

Joe C

Does Morrison’s Animal Man count as one story? If something like Immortal Iron Fist does, I feel like it has to, right? What is it, eight issues longer? And it certainly has the climax seeded all the way back at the beginning. Or at least from “Coyote Gospel” on.

Anonymous

Anonymous

@CrazyChris– I don’t know what the official word on this will be, but anyone who’s read it can tell you that it’s clearly ONE single story that was only given two “chapters” so that it’d be easier to organize in TPB form. The whole first 11 issues of the series are telling one continuous story and NOT two.

However, it’s ultimately up to Cronin and there’s no telling what his criteria will be.

Dalarsco

1. Just to make sure, Age of Apocalypse is one story, right?
2. In the X-Men Ancillary Stories list you counted X-Factor #38-50 as the post-baby storyline, and it clocks in at 13 issues. Does that ruling still stand?
3. Related to Jazzbo’s question, I know this won’t be how you judge it, but the Preacher trade division has always bugged me. I read the first half of Until the End of the World (#8-12) as one story, then the second half along with most of the third volume as the next story (#13-24), and the final two issues of that volume (Cassidy’s origin story) as a completely separate story that I would have packaged into a trade with the mini and one-shots that comprised the fourth volume.

Holy crap is this ever hard. Part of why I love comics is that it’s the best place to find long-form storytelling, so I almost always think in terms of runs and it’s rare that I consider my favorite stories within that run. Plus, the shorter the story the harder it is it compare to other stories since most of my favorite runs contain a large variety of story types. Eg. My top three runs are almost always Robinson’s Starman, Claremont’s X-Men (post-Cockrum/Byrne/Cockrum if you make me divide it), and Moore’s Swamp Thing. Each of these runs contains some super hero adventure, some cosmic space opera, and some mystic horror, so it makes it easier to judge the net quality. But if my favorite stories in each one are The Arcane Saga, The Stars My Destination, and A Green and Pleasant Land, it becomes much harder to judge because all those stories are meant to create very different feelings. Further, my run focus isn’t helped by how most of my favorite writers are big on slow buildups and running plots, so it’s hard to actually identify which story I want. PAD and Claremont are especially tough for this, so I could very well end up with nothing by them on my final list despite them being two of my favorite writers.

hammard

Bugger. I thought Hard Travelling Heroes would be eligible. I actually think the junkie storyline is the weakest but it’s the only one that is really a multiple issue storyline. Hmmm, I’m going to have to think hard about a replacement.

@Brian: Just double checking now: Is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century counted as a storyline?

The Crazed Spruce

Hang on a second…. webcomics count? Is that just downloadable comics (like, oh, let’s say, Batman ’66), or does it include strips too (for instance, and just spitballing here, The Order of the Stick)? And if strips are eligible, what would the cutoff be? A year’s worth of strips, or a collected edition maybe?

DanCJ

Brian Cronin

I think I know the answer to this, but the 2nd Preacher trade, Until the End of the World, is that one storyline or two?

It’s two, but for the sake of ease, I’ll count it as one this time around. We counted it as two on the last list, but I think I’ll just call it one now, especially since odds are that only one of the two stories will make it, so it isn’t really affecting anything, ya know? We’re basically just rewarding All in the Family but simply calling it Until the End of the World because that’s what the trade is called. The Hunters just goes along for the ride.

Brian Cronin

2. In the X-Men Ancillary Stories list you counted X-Factor #38-50 as the post-baby storyline, and it clocks in at 13 issues. Does that ruling still stand?

Yeah, pretty much any ruling on the Top 50 Avengers and X-Men countdown would apply to this countdown as well.

3. Related to Jazzbo’s question, I know this won’t be how you judge it, but the Preacher trade division has always bugged me. I read the first half of Until the End of the World (#8-12) as one story, then the second half along with most of the third volume as the next story (#13-24), and the final two issues of that volume (Cassidy’s origin story) as a completely separate story that I would have packaged into a trade with the mini and one-shots that comprised the fourth volume.

It’s obviously a strange split, but at the same time, for the sake of uniformity (which is always best for big lists like this), we’ll stick with the trade split.

Brian Cronin

Bugger. I thought Hard Travelling Heroes would be eligible. I actually think the junkie storyline is the weakest but it’s the only one that is really a multiple issue storyline. Hmmm, I’m going to have to think hard about a replacement.

I initially leaned toward yes, but I noticed it didn’t even make the list last time and it DID make the runs list, so I figure better to just count it as a run. If it is a close call as to whether it is a storyline or a run, I’ll lean toward run so that we can open the list up to more choices (you know, if a run is already acknowledged as awesome on the Top 100 Comic Book Runs list, there is less of a need to ALSO acknowledge it as a storyline, unless it is obviously a storyline like Strange Apparitions).

@Brian: Just double checking now: Is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century counted as a storyline?

Yeah, okay, I can count that as such.

Brian Cronin

Hang on a second…. webcomics count? Is that just downloadable comics (like, oh, let’s say, Batman ’66), or does it include strips too (for instance, and just spitballing here, The Order of the Stick)? And if strips are eligible, what would the cutoff be? A year’s worth of strips, or a collected edition maybe?

Order of the Stick would count. I’d say just use your best judgment. Like, for instance, if you want to vote for Achewood’s Great Outdoor Fight, then that’d make sense.

Ryan Snider

Greg Silber

I know I’m not the only one saying it, but man, that was tough. Tried my best to keep it diverse, but it got to a point where I had to ignore my pretentious tendencies and just think about what stories I’ve enjoyed most, or found most meaningful. That’s why more than half of my list is superhero stuff.

Some notable omissions:

-I LOVE Neil Gaiman, but of his comics that I’ve read, none quite made the cut. To be fair, I’m only about halfway through Sandman

-I’m a big fan of Scott McCloud, but none of his nonfiction would count. Zot (particularly the “Earth Stories”) is excellent, but not quite enough to crack my top 10.

-Will Eisner’s “A Contract with God” trilogy is wonderful, but it’s not a storyline– more a collection of vignettes

-I wish I could have shown Craig Thompson some love, but “Blankets” or “Habibi” wouldn’t count

-Very tempted to include an “Axe Cop” storyline! Hopefully it’ll show up somewhere in the top 100.

John King

I’m in the process of looking through me thousands of comics (I don’t think I’ve reached millions, yet) trying to pick out stories.
Some I’m wondering about but not yet decided on and thought it best to get rulings on any that may be questionable now.
Are these valid?
Mage the Hero Discovered (15 issues)
[removed as answered with C]
Morning Glories: The Woodrun (issues 13-29) -It clearly violates the first of the two rule 8s but feels like a storyline
Are Wandering Star and Strangers in Paradise broken down by TPBs?

Flunky

Elpie

This is insanely difficult as always, so here are a few criteria I used:

1) No more than one story per writer or artist. Managed to achieve this miraculously despite one of my votes having eight or nine artists.

2) Rank stories by how strong they affected me emotionally the first time I read them. I cut out a lot of really exciting, technically brilliant action comics, comedies, or more intellectually-focused dramas in favor of things that made me cry or made me want to cry or made me almost cry. There are /maybe/ two things on this list that probably wouldn’t have made it based on my raw response to it, but that grew on me after multiple rereads. But there’s also at least one that might get dropped off the list if I reread it today, but that I /really/ connected with at the moment I read it.

3) After wondering whether this should bother me, I decided not to favor stories that “needed” my vote over stories that “didn’t need” my vote. There’s at least one in my top ten list that’s destined to be in the top ten overall whether I vote for it or not. And my number ten vote /desperately/ deserves a spot in the top 100, and might have a chance if I put it at number one and run around encouraging everyone I know to put it at number one, but… it doesn’t deserve a higher spot based on criterion number two. My goal in putting together this list should be to make a top 10 list that agrees with me, not to contribute to a top 100 list that agrees with me.

Chris N

Cylon

I have to say I am completaly leaving out Asian and European comics, even though some of it would make my list. I know it is all comics, but the respective scenes and industries just do work differently and I feel like I’d have to shoehorn manga or European graphic albums into the rules and it wouldn’t feel right.

So, I am counting only North American comics hoping for a special poll for Asia and Europe at some point.

Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin

Does Akira count as one storyline, or is it broken into volumes? If the latter, how would I go about breaking it up?

Split it up by volume. There are six volumes in the series. I’ll admit, though, that of all of the examples, Akira is the closest I’ve come to just saying, “Screw it, count the whole thing as one story.” But 2,000+ pages? I just can’t go with that as one story. It’s nearly five times as long as Watchmen!

Ben Olson

I figured that Akira wouldn’t count as one story, but I had to check because it probably would’ve been #1 for me if it did. Now it sadly will probably not make my list at all, considering that I can’t pick out one volume that stands out from the rest. It’s all just consistantly great, from beginning to end.

Walkinspanish

I obviously have no say here, but re: Planetary, I would think issues 1-12 would be one story & 13-27 another. 1-12 is definitely act 1, what with Snow getting his memories back & announcing himself to the Four at the end of it. And 13-27 (obviously) tell the rest of the story. Just my unsolicited 2 cents.

Just voted – of course it’s difficult. I often wish in these polls that the scoring was more like 10 points for #1, 8 points each for #2-3, 6 points each for #4-6, and 5 points each for #7-10. I’d find the ordering to be easier then, and it’d feel like not such a waste to throw just 1 or 2 votes toward more obscure titles lower on my list.

But then, realistically it probably wouldn’t make any difference if “Sword of the Atom” had three more points going for it.

John King

mrclam – me too (and the three or four “superheroes” I voted for were rather unconventional)
I suspect 2 of the 3 black-and-white stories I voted for will be nowhere…

XBen – I do feel the scoring system is too geared towards listing 10 or 11 options in order of preference rather than selecting 10 stories from thousands of possibilities. A simple 1 point per vote would come closer to representing the opinions of voters or maybe 3 points for first place, 2 points for second, third and fourth, and 1 point each for fifth through tenth. Though I suppose this way there is less chance of ties.
And as Brian’s the one doing the work (organising, counting and the results) he gets to decide.

Ritchard

Sorry for the double post, but one of the first storylines I considered raised two more issues:

1. If a fill-in or completely unrelated tangent appears in the middle of an otherwise linear storyline, can we just skip it?

2. If there is definitely a cohesive storyline through a large number of issues, but a small subset of these are labeled specifically as a multi-part storyline in themselves, does that invalidate the larger story as eligible?

I was specifically thinking about the Unicron story from the original Transformers comic, beginning with issue #61 IIRC, and ending with #75. (Everyone’s scoffing right now except the handful of people who acturally read this. ) However, two issues (#67 and #68) are stand-alone tangents, and #’s 62-66 are specifically designated “Matrix Quest, Part _ of 5.” (Truth be told, I could skip the good-but-not-great Matrix Quest and go with #61 and #69-75, if that’s allowed, or drop #61 from consideration if it’s not,, but someone else might have a question about another storyline interrupted by fill-ins so I’ll leave the question.)

Travis Pelkie

Mike D.

Dear god…it’s as if the special phrase isn’t written multiple times. Do people just not read? or are they just listing their favourite story lines to gain some kind of acknowledgement from the community? Brian maybe some 40 point font is in order to get the point across?

Brian Cronin

Dear god…it’s as if the special phrase isn’t written multiple times. Do people just not read? or are they just listing their favourite story lines to gain some kind of acknowledgement from the community? Brian maybe some 40 point font is in order to get the point across?

The problem is that since the vast majority of people did it correctly, you’re only seeing the ones who DIDN’T, ya know? So it looks like there were more of them than there really were.

Scott F.

Brian Cronin

TWFI

The thing I’m most interested in is seeing which books which came out after the first poll back in 2009 will make this one. As a big Batman fan, I wonder how Grant Morrison’s Batman books will perform.

Romenart

i don’t know if my vote counted, and maybe i shouldn’t have voted for manga, but i want to thank you for these polls, i think my comic book knowledge is quite improved since last one
both the site and the blog are amazing
i’m curious to see some snyder’s batman and i hope Powers-“Who Killed Retro Girl?” will remain in the top 100

Jerzy

The sad thing is, the rules sort of make it really for me to include alot of recent storylines, because, if we’re separating storylines by trades so many trades these days don’t contain a whole story. For instance, I would love to include Plaentary somewhere, but I couldn’t really consider any of the 4 trades a complete storyline that resolves in any satisfying way; certainly not when compared to something like “Watchmen” or “The Doll’s House” or “The Great Darkness Saga” or any number of actual full, complete storylines that used to be collected into one trade paperback. Now, story arcs are much more spread out and trades have gotten so much smaller, so that it often takes a series of trades for one complete story. And, as much as I’d like to acknowledge recent, excellent work, it’s very hard to justify a spot to something that is more like the first or third act of a major storyline, versus something older that is actually a complete storyline.

I know lines have to be drawn somewhere and it’s hard to come up with rules for this stuff, so I’m not trying to call foul on the set-up here. I’m just pointing out my issues with it.

Romenart

John King

so many stories I wanted to include but couldn’t fit in
Little White Mouse…
Roachmill : Dog City
The Spider and the Exterminator (a childhood favourite of mine – possibly written by Jerry Siegal while he was working in UK comics)

Of course these have even less chance of making the top 100 than most of the stories I did vote for